Posting for my buddy, Eppies07Epic. He wanted to try something new so one of our friends is building the box for his W7 out of Corian to put under the helm in his '07 Epic. Here's what he has so far. Once the glue is dry, he will go back with a router and cut out the port and trim the edges so that it is smooth. If he wanted, he could completely sand and polish it out and it would look like it's one piece.

After reading these threads for years, I almost always hear that gluing a sub box together is a bad idea. Glue has gotten pretty awesome in recent years, but I think the box will split at the seams if it is not screwed together. Thanks to the experts who glued my sub box together, I am building a new one this spring. Water and glue do not go together.

No i do not have pictures, that was 10-12 years ago we tried the sub box...Corian is a great product but it will not stand up to 2 things. Direct heat: ie, hot pot off stove @ 300 degrees. The color pigment will burn and eventually if done enough times it will crack. I have seen it crack with someone doing that one time...

Also If you take a piece of relative size and drop in on ground it will break. Kinda like tempered glass..... You can hit tempered glass with a hammer and it has very good strength, but you touch a corner to tile and it will shatter.. Same kind thing with corian, it is strong, but with just the correct vibration it will crack. Also corian is not flexible, if you take a 10' sheet and lift up both ends, yes it will flex some...But smaller pieces will not flex. So with all the vibrations of the sub, its bound to crack and break....Like trying to bend concrete, just dosent work and at some point it it will break and crack..

Also Corian is not dense at all, actually no porous....Normally MDF is best to use because of its density, corian has none. So i would guess as will the speaker is not going to sounds as good as it can..I would be the speaker will bottom out....( I would let David @ Earmark) answer this part of the technical aspect.....

But the idea for a boat is great, the application is not practical
my .02

one more thing, you can not screw into corian, you can pre drill and use nut / bolts...So how are you going to hold the sub in there with out screwing it in. unless you install speaker before the top goes on, then how do you get it off once you seam it all together...I have a feeling that w7 is literally going to jump out of that box

Also Corian is not dense at all, actually no porous....Normally MDF is best to use because of its density, corian has none. So i would guess as will the speaker is not going to sounds as good as it can..I would be the speaker will bottom out....( I would let David @ Earmark) answer this part of the technical aspect.....

I think you are confused. Corian has almost twice the density of MDF (1.68 – 1.75 g/cm3 vs. 0.700g/cm3 research corian density and MDF density).

He is using anchors in the corian that the speaker will screw into. I believe he is also using anchors on the glued together sections as well.

Maybe it will work for you! Hope it does, that would be a great thing to use in the boats...I will call my corian supplier and ask about the density...I just dont see how something non porous can absorb any of the sound / sound waves....It may be that it is more dense according to the physical properties, but its gotta be like putting a sub in a tin can....I may be wrong, It just dosent make sense to me..Ill make a few calls and see what I can dig up

Here's the latest. Port is now cut out and will be sanded smooth. I saw it in person the other night and it's pretty bad azz! It looks like one piece, the seams just sand away which is pretty impressive. We also discovered that this white corian is kind of transluscent and he may put an LED strip inside the box which will make it glow. The yellow stuff you see in there is "hot melt" and that can be sanded away too. A little more work than an MDF/wood box.

I have been swamped at work and have not had time to call Dupont and do a little research... You project looks great and I really hope it works out...If it works for you guys only down fall i see I weight and cost...Cost will be more than a marine board and much more than MDF.....Just to give you guys examples of Cost,. Corian is sold for countertops around mid $40's -$50's per sqft. and thats for a flat countetop...This is much more labor intensive....The place I think is the weak link, Is the seam..When I say shatter, not like the box is going to burst into a million pieces, I think It will crack at your seams....
But great thinking out side the box....

The only resrearch I have got so far is that the Corian will resonate noise and make the sound, sound different than it should...Where MDF has none/little noise resenation. I just did a quick goodle and found that...You are correct about the Density, Corian is MUCH more....I hope to have a few answers tomorrow

Chris I also have been busy at work and haven't been able to post anything about the box going into my boat. As Timmy said these are scrap pieces laying around our friends shop. But as far as price? Dude there are pics of some sick azz installs on this forum, sub boxes, amp racks, battery treys .......not to mention the cost of the components of these systems! As far as weight, my boat holds 4000 lbs of water! My battery set up for just my system weighs 130 lbs not counting the boat batteries, weight is NOT an issue for me! Labor? Yes our friend did say it was more work than he thought but is still happy to do it. This is kind of a test run. the first one is always the hardest one as everyone knows. I have other friends that are intrested in Corian as well, they're just waiting for us to finish with this one to see how it looks when it's all finished. I hope I didn't come across like I'm blowing you up, this is the common thought of the three of us as we are the ones that putting it in.

I think you guys are missing an important aspect to speaker enclosure design. Density is a small factor. The big one is tonal quality. Plastics, such as Corian, will give you a tinny or harsh sound. Wood is always best and MDF or particle board is typically chosen for it's consistency (no knots or inconsistent wood). Pretty much all high end speaker enclosures are made of particle board or MDF. And I can make that stuff look like one piece too.

Hey I haven't gone thew all the reply's But I dont see any screws holding this bad boy together. I know glues are crazy strong these day's But Im just saying. When you have a 60 LB sub bouncing up and down up over double ups and wakes you Better make sure your stuff is OVERBUILT.

Next thing is Your suposed to have "2" 3/4 boards for your baffel. Now I have no idea how corion is compaired to MDF in Sheer strenght im sure its way stronger. But the 2nd 3/4 MDF board give the Screws somthing more to screw into. Again I wouldnt Trust a big heavy sub like that screwed into 1/2 or a single 3/4 sheet.
Damm I hate when people come on my threads and Po Po on my projects and Now Im doing it, WHAT a TOOL i am. Im sorry for my Post please ignore what ignore what said .

Tuneman, we'll have to see how it sounds. This has definitely been done before, not pioneering anything. There are some high end audio mfr's using it in their enclosures but mixing it with other materials too.

G, it's all good! Thanks for the advice. Constructive criticism is good and is welcomed. We only had a single 3/4" baffle in the MDF box that he ran last year and there weren't any issues as far as the baffle is concerned. I was curious as to how 1/2" would hold up as well. If it cracks, he can glue it back together and put a double wall on it. There is actually a second "false front" that will be going in as well, maybe we should look into gluing that to the box so that the speaker has more to bite into.

It just seems that there are good instances to re-invent the wheel and instances where using an exsisiting method is the correct choice. I definately got my opinion on this one but will wait to see how this thing turns out. But, hats off for the inginuity!!

When are u guys gonna quit playing with this box? Drop the sub in and put some power to it so we can see the outcome:-)

I agree! LOL! The guy building it has been too busy with work to finish it up. He is going to build a second front panel as well as reinforce the mounting ring area for the sub per Grant's suggestion/advice and that is going to be another day or two.

Well...it turns out that I screwed up the port dimensions and the box is tuned too high now, it's tuned at 39.7 Hz instead of the planned 36.7 that JL recommends. I accidentally made the slot port 2" wide instead of 1.75" and that .25" screws things up. I need to go over and hear it tonight but he called me last night and said it's not hitting the lows like it used to. UGH! Now how do I add about 5" of length to the port when the box is already completely glued together...

I went and listened to the box tonight and....it pounds! Eppie was totally messing with me! Does it sound any better than mdf? Not that I can tell but it hits just as hard even if the tuning is off by 3hz. There's still some finish work to do on the faux front that is going in but here's a crappy cell phone pic with it sitting in its final resting place. The faux front will cover up all of the empty space around it and then it will have a speaker grill too.